Not only do we scour the internet to bring you the best in tips, tricks, and hacks we can find, but we also put them to use in our own homes and offices.

Lifehacker Labs is a chance for us to show you how we've used tips and tricks from Lifehacker, revisited old ones, and even improved upon them in the process. We promise we wore safety glasses the whole time and everyone signed a waiver.

Earlier this year we shared a video-guide to wet shaving. After years of frustration over expensive and cheap-feeling disposable razor cartridges, I jumped feet first into experimenting with shaving like my grandfather did, with a safety razor, a shaving mug, and a badger hair brush. I went from shaving a few times a week because I disliked shaving so much (and trust me I should have been shaving once, maybe even twice, a day) to shaving every day because it was fun.

Shaving cartridges are expensive—the current crop of Gillette's razors, for example, cost over …
Read more Read more

The initial cost was around $120 for a total startup—razor, 100-pack of razor refills, shaving brush, brush stand, shaving cream, and mug. The previous list is hot linked so you can see the exact items I bought, the mug isn't hot linked because I simply bought a stout and wide mouthed cobalt-blue mug out of the drink-ware aisle at the local big-box store for a few bucks.

Spending $120 to get started with wet-shaving might seem like a lot of money but considering that the retail price of premium disposable cartridges is around $2.50 each and they last for a fraction of the time the simple 7 cent safety razor refills do, the cost won't take long to recoup. The consumable side of things—razor refills and shaving cream—last for ages; I'm barely a quarter of the way through the $16 tub of shaving cream I bought back in July, and thanks to our next trick I've used less than $1 worth of razor blades this entire season. I likely won't be spending a penny on supplies for at least another 6 or more months and when I do it'll be for another long lasting tub of shaving cream. More important than saving money in the long run however was the simple enjoyment of it. I'm going to shave easily another 18-20,000 times in my life, you can't put a price on actually enjoying something you're going to do that much.

In September we shared a tip with you on how to keep your razors sharp for as long as possible by submerging the blade in mineral oil. Since we posted that tip I've tried it out on both a Mach3 cartridge razor and a single-edge safety razor. Despite not enjoying shaving with a cartridge razor—see above!—I shaved with both razors in an attempt to wear them down. Both razors remained significantly sharper for longer. The oil completely did in the moisture strip on the cartridge, which wasn't a big deal since even after a hot water rinse before shaving the blade was still fairly slick from the oil bath. Of the two razors, the safety razor stayed sharper longer. In fact I've been shaving with the same 7 cent safety razor blade for weeks now and it still slices through my 10-gauge-wire beard with absolutely no catching or drag. Considering a small bottle of mineral oil costs less than a single replacement cartridge, it's definitely a hack worth using.

Back in January we shared a simple tip for removing labels from boxes for reuse. You lightly trace the outline of the label with a razor and peel the label up. It removes the first layer of the outer cardboard and the box is still intact. After Black Friday I had a bunch of boxes I needed to remove the labels for to mail in rebates, but I didn't feel like sawing through them and mailing a big hunk of tattered cardboard. The label removal trick works like a charm for removing labels cleanly—and thinly—for rebate mailings.

I started off using a metal ruler for a clean edge, but by the last box I was just free handing it. Free hand was much faster and just as effective. The razor seen in the photo is the Olfa Touch and definitely one of the best $2 investments I've made. I've had it for several years and it's a great little razor to keep on your desk for jobs like this.

It's no ship in a bottle, but it is a novel way to add some low-maintenance greenery to your…
Read more Read more

I had a fair amount of moss pieces left, many of them small "trimmings" from the larger pieces I had used in making my two big terrariums. This year we hosted Thanksgiving at casa Fitzpatrick, and it seemed like a perfect way to use up the extra moss and introduce some novelty to the table. I went to World Market and bought a bunch of their 99-cent glass spice jars in the cooking glassware aisle and a small bag of river stones for $8. I used the spice jars to make tiny little moss terrariums for each place setting and used simple hand cut card stock and some gift card string to attach the names around the neck of the bottle. Each bottle had moss and one or two very small river stones. The placeholders were a huge hit with the guests and could be great for any upcoming holiday party.

In early November we shared the fantastic Alton Brown recipe for brining a turkey. We followed up closer to Thanksgiving by sharing more brining recipes, and plenty or readers chimed in with their favorites, too. Most of the editors at Lifehacker HQ brined our turkeys this year, and the results were delicious. Lowell tried the upside-down trick—you cook the turkey upside down so the juices pool in the breast meat—and I cooked it in a more traditional way after a solid soak with the Alton Brown recipe. This was the first time I'd had a brined turkey (not a tradition in my family), and it was definitely the most delicious turkey I've ever had.

Thanksgiving's just around the corner, which means many of us will try our hand at cooking a…
Read more Read more

That's it for this week's Lifehacker Lab, but don't let us have all the fun. We have a Lifehacker Tips Tester pool on Flickr for you to show off your your favorite Lifehacker tips, tricks, and hacks in action. If you've used a tip from Lifehacker, we'd love to see photos of your results in the tester pool!